The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for transporting objects and in particular containers. From the prior art, a number of different apparatus for treating objects and in particular containers are known. In this connection it is also known to treat such containers within a clean or sterile room and subsequently to transport them out of this sterile room. For example, it is possible that objects or containers are moved, more or less free-standing, supported by railings on generally customary conveyor belts, out of the sterile rooms or isolators. Thus, it is possible that the respective conveyor belt runs out of the sterile area via idle rollers and, thus, into and back out of the contaminated area. In this way it may occur that unsterile parts, such as for example unsterile parts of conveyor belts, find their way into the clean room and contaminate the latter.
From the Applicant's internal prior art a solution is known wherein an additional grey area is provided as a buffer between the sterile area and the surrounding area. Within this grey area, which like the sterile area also needs to be cleaned and disinfected, a push-over from a first belt to a second belt is incorporated. The first belt runs between the sterile area and the grey area and the second belt runs from the grey area towards the outside, which largely avoids a direct ingress of germs and impurities from the environment into the sterile area. Corresponding separating walls of the sterile room are usually positioned transversally to the transport direction of the containers here. A disadvantage of this approach is that the objects are more liable to fall over during the handover from one locker output spider onto the conveyor belt or on the push-over between the two conveyor belts, which in turn may result in interferences of the system operation.
The problem mentioned above is relevant for example in the case of aseptic filling devices, wherein containers filled under sterile conditions in a clean room are carried out of the clean room. In the grey room mentioned above (which acts as a sluice) between the sterile room and the unsterile environment, it is ensured by means of venting technology that air from the sterile zone flows into this grey room, by which means it is avoided that any germs from the environment will get into the clean room via this grey room. The positioning of this clean room thus results in an increased complexity, since it is necessary when establishing the pressure conditions in this clean room, to take into account both the sterile room and the non-sterile area. To ensure that air will not unnecessarily be lost from the clean room and that as little medium as possible gets into the environment during cleaning or disinfection of the clean room, the clean room will be sealed off transversely to the second belt mentioned, and this sealing off will be done by means of a flap which is closed during the cleaning and disinfection operations.
Since this flap, as mentioned above, is also located transversely to the outrunning belt, the space in the area of the exiting and returning outrunning chain cannot be sealed, so that the maximum workplace concentration (MAK) in the environment will be degraded and a lot of air is lost during production.
The present invention is therefore based on the object of simplifying corresponding transport systems for containers from sterile rooms or into sterile rooms. According to the invention, this is achieved by means of an apparatus according to claim 1 and a method according to claim 12. Advantageous embodiments and further developments are the subject matter of the dependent claims.